The attacks by the bugs, particularly the flying ones, were terrifying; with a single sweep of their wings upon a rapid dive, the heads of over a dozen monsters would be severed, and those slain creatures would instantly dissolve into dust. Fortunately, the monsters numbered in the hundreds, so the loss of a dozen or so was inconsequential. Innumerable giant long blades rose and slashed wildly, quickly tearing the flying bug to shreds. Then came another insect that charged in...

In general, the conflict between quantity and quality was starkly contrasted here. Unless there was a heaven-defying difference in quality—like an ant versus a human, or a person with a machine gun facing a monkey (and naturally, this means an ordinary monkey without firearms)—there was no way one living entity could easily annihilate countless others. Even with Zheng Zha's strength, facing thousands of flying insects meant near certain death!

Similarly, the number of flying insects before them was already quite small. Compared to the hundreds of monsters in the Death God Legion, the remaining dozen or so flying bugs barely had time to charge into the legion before they were viciously dismembered by the monsters. Although their agility and strength surpassed that of the Death God Legion's creatures, it was ultimately useless against the sheer numbers.

On the other side, Chu Xuan had also dealt with a hundred encircling flying insects while airborne. Likewise, with the coordinated effort of Luo Gandao and Overlord, dozens of flying bugs were completely pulverized, leaving only two bugs soaring into the air. But before they could make any move, with a loud boom, an incredibly powerful, massive bullet pierced through both flying bugs, shattering them instantly into pieces of insect corpse.

Zheng Zha desperately drew the residual Internal Energy and Vampire energy from the two charged Mithril rings. After a few seconds, he managed to pull himself up from the ground. At this point, his Internal Energy had recovered about twenty percent, and he still had just over thirty percent of his Vampire energy remaining. While this amount of energy wasn't enough for him to engage in an "explosive" battle, it was sufficient for physical movement.

Zheng Zha quickly ran toward the cave entrance, shouting as he went, "Wang Xia, bring out the Green Goblin Glider too... Damn it, the fire-spitting bugs underground have multiplied again!"

Under Zhan Lan's mental scan, in addition to the single large fire-spitting bug that had erupted from below earlier, several more large bugs were moving towards the surface underground. Fortunately, those ground-crawling insects, two to three meters tall, were being obstructed by rock debris. Furthermore, the scan showed that all the flying bugs had been cleared out. In essence, as long as the group could take to the air within a minute, they would mostly be out of serious danger.

Swiftly, Overlord bolted out of the cave carrying Zhan Lan on his back. Following them were Wang Xia and Zero Point, holding the glider and the small blue airship device. As the two tossed these items onto the ground, Zheng Zha jumped onto the Green Goblin Glider without hesitation, followed by Wang Xia. Zero Point and Zhan Lan also entered the small airship Blue. But at this crucial moment, the battle-scarred cartoon bear robot suddenly tumbled to the ground, repeatedly crying out the word, "Moni!"

Zhan Lan exclaimed urgently, "This is bad! Luo Gandao already unlocked his Gene Lock... Now is the time for his after-effects to strike. His entire musculature is convulsing, he can't breathe, and he’s nearly suffocated. He can't even board the Airship Blue by himself..."

Zheng Zha was about to jump off the glider, but upon seeing Chu Xuan's movement, he slowly began to ascend. As he flew, he said, "Zhan Lan, divert some mental energy to scan for any surviving army units nearby. We need to start finding a target unit to integrate with. Oh, and don't relax the sky scan either; tell me immediately if you spot any rescue ships."

As he spoke, the cartoon bear robot rolling on the ground was facing directly toward them. Luo Gandao gritted his teeth, his mouth slick with blood from the intensity of the pain. His muscles were violently spasming and trembling, leaving him utterly incapable of even the slightest movement. Coupled with his increasingly shallow breathing, he was on the verge of losing consciousness. The agonizing pain of unlocking the Gene Lock for the first time was something an ordinary person could never endure...

(...They're flying away, planning to abandon me here? Are they planning to abandon me now that I'm a burden? As expected... they also intend to ditch the weak link...)

Amidst the violent agony, Luo Gandao slowly closed his eyes, only occasionally drawing a breath due to the painful spasms. It wasn't until he felt the cockpit sway that he violently snapped his eyes open to look at the display screen. Indeed, he saw Chu Xuan and Overlord supporting the cartoon bear robot, one on each side, walking toward Airship Blue. Although the robot was relatively small, it still contained mechanical internals, so even this short distance of seven or eight meters took the group over twenty seconds. Only when Overlord roared and suddenly hurled the cartoon bear robot into Airship Blue did Chu Xuan step onto the Green Goblin Glider and speed toward the sky. By then, the ground was beginning to tremble.

Overlord laughed heartily, having already reverted from his werewolf transformation. He slapped the shoulder of the cartoon bear robot forcefully. "Good job, kid! I didn't expect you to unlock the Gene Lock in your first fight. It wasn't a waste of effort chasing you with that electric baton so many times, hahaha! Thanks to you, kid, it wouldn't have been easy for us to kill so many bugs in such a short time..."

Luo Gandao remained silent, turning his monitor to look at the ground. After shaking violently for a moment, a mound of dirt finally erupted there, followed by a giant red-shelled beetle, ten-plus meters long and six or seven meters high, drilling out from the mound. As soon as it emerged, it aimed its mouth toward the sky and spat out a pillar of fire, shooting straight up about fifteen or sixteen meters high. Even though they were quite far away, Overlord and the others felt the scorching heat rushing toward them; the power of that blazing crimson fire column was truly horrifying.

Overlord and Luo Gandao exchanged a glance, and Overlord prepared to aim his pulsing pulse rifle with its still incandescent barrel downward, but Chu Xuan's voice cut in: "It's no longer necessary... Five seconds left."

Overlord and Luo Gandao were momentarily stunned. They looked back down at the ground. Besides that giant fire-spitting beetle, countless ground-crawling insects were emerging. If the group had lingered on the ground for another twenty seconds, they too would have been easily swallowed by the massive swarm.

"Time's up!"

"Time..."

On the other Green Goblin Glider, Wang Xia held his wrist, checking his pulse. He spoke softly to the others. Almost instantaneously, blue electrical light flashed across the ground, and numerous blue plasma balls scattered wildly. Any bug directly hit by a plasma ball was instantly vaporized. The bugs surrounding them were rapidly scorched into ash. The power of these plasma balls was immense, far surpassing that of lightning or pure electrical energy—it was an extreme concentration of electrical power.

A combination of one timed plasma bomb and several plasma landmines created an effect where plasma balls covered an area of a hundred square meters below. After ricocheting everywhere, the surrounding two to three hundred meters were engulfed in terrifying high temperatures. Coincidentally, just as the first giant fire-spitting bug emerged, countless ground bugs kept crawling out behind it, and two other fire-spitting bugs also emerged sequentially. This continuous detonation completely annihilated that large section of insects right where they were. Wang Xia's reward points jumped by hundreds, almost reaching a thousand from this single action. Although they hadn't escaped danger yet, Wang Xia chuckled twice.

Although Zheng Zha was controlling the glider, Zhan Lan transmitted the scene of the explosion below into his mind. Seeing so many bugs annihilated, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, he continued to ask Zhan Lan, "Zhan Lan, did you locate any nearby surviving military units? The Sixth Mobile Unit?"

Zhan Lan sighed heavily. "No luck. The First Mobile Unit, which landed first, has been completely wiped out. Then the Second Mobile Unit, the Third Mobile Unit. Our Fourth Mobile Unit has maybe one or two thousand people left, resisting on a hill behind us. The Fifth Mobile Unit that landed after us is also mostly dead. However, a small unit of about a few hundred people is continuously gathering scattered soldiers, and they are moving toward the Sixth Mobile Unit's location. The Sixth Mobile Unit has the largest numbers... but many bugs are chasing them from behind, and they are fleeing toward our location..."

This meant the units that landed earlier died faster. Zheng Zha nodded; they had clearly underestimated the terrifying destructive power of the insect swarm. Over a hundred thousand casualties in just a few hours, and all from the ground forces—the entire ground contingent was almost wiped out structurally. While this was partly due to the warped nature of infantry fire—that in this so-called high-tech future era, there were no mechanized units in ground combat (perhaps an anomaly stemming from the movie plot)—killing a hundred thousand people in a few hours was immense. Even the seven of them had faced extreme peril when surrounded by hundreds of flying insects earlier. This gave one an idea of how terrifying these bugs truly were.

"Zheng Zha, I also found something interesting... Where do you think that reincarnation team that scanned us with mental power a moment ago is now?" Chu Xuan's voice suddenly appeared in Zheng Zha's mind. Zheng Zha knew this must be Zhan Lan linking his consciousness with Chu Xuan's via the Mind Chain.

Zheng Zha thought for a moment, replying curiously, "With the Sixth Mobile Unit? Are you suggesting that if we go to the Sixth Mobile Unit now, we'll meet them?"

Chu Xuan stated calmly, "No, they won't be with the Sixth Mobile Unit, because meeting us there would be too easy. You must understand one thing: their biggest advantage can only be arriving in this world ahead of us and relying on the 'influence' they've established in that time, rather than engaging us head-on in a direct confrontation, because we are stronger than them! In a direct battle, the most likely outcome is our team completely annihilating both of their teams—that's highly probable!"

"So, if I were them, under the current circumstances, I would never risk team coordination. First, it would expose their location, giving us a chance to find and eliminate them—that's a foolish move no mature team would make. Second, the battlefield is extremely dangerous right now. In this endless sea of bugs, even we can barely protect ourselves. I don't believe that they, being weaker than us, could easily withstand the swarm and still have surplus strength for coordinated team fighting. Therefore, there is only one possibility that would make them seek us out in such a dangerous situation: when they believe they are completely safe... If we extrapolate based on this assumption, a safe place on the current battlefield cannot be near the movie protagonists with the Sixth Mobile Unit, as that creates a high probability of meeting us, and meeting us means their failure. The only truly safe place would be... amidst the sea of bugs!"

This time, Zheng Zha was genuinely stunned. They were currently fighting the bugs, yet a place within the sea of bugs was considered safe ground? What did that mean? As he pondered, a thought flashed through his mind, and he quickly asked with curiosity, "You mean, 'Main God' made them..."

Chu Xuan's voice confirmed, "Yes, 'Main God' has made them join the bug side, just like the (Yinzhou Team) helping the Undead Priest! One reincarnation team is a member of the bug faction!"

Zheng Zha took a deep breath and then said, "But based on what you're saying, that swarm of flying bugs just now—did that reincarnation team scan us and then dispatch them as an attack force? If so, aren't we in extreme danger right now?"

Chu Xuan shook his head. "Danger isn't the word, because they likely don't have the ability to command the entire insect army. Otherwise, we wouldn't just be facing a few hundred flying bugs; we’d be facing an endless stream of tens of thousands. So, the conclusion of my deduction is that they are the reincarnation team allied with the insect faction, but they cannot direct the movements of the insect forces. They can only relay the information they scan via the Mind Chain to the Brain Bugs. In this scenario, we are indeed in danger because the Brain Bugs know our movements, but they wouldn't abandon tens of thousands of troops just to attack us. Thus, once we reach the Sixth Mobile Unit, the danger level will drop significantly... However, when I deduced that one reincarnation team belongs to the insect faction, two unanswerable questions arose."

"One: Where is the other reincarnation team? Are they not present anywhere on this battlefield?"

"Two: ...What is the meaning behind 'Main God' allowing us to live for twenty days? Does it really mean we can survive those twenty days by taking a backdoor route, simply passing through this horror movie world safely? No, based on my understanding of 'Main God,' there must be something happening that wasn't shown in the movie, something that forces all three teams to fight desperately together. That must happen! But what exactly could that be?"

"I must be missing some detail, otherwise this deduction cannot proceed... What could it be?" (To be continued)